Toward the Abolition of Slavery under the Aegis of Islamic Law – The Comparative Jurist

Lawyers have long sought not only to clarify but to improve the law. So it is with the three great Abrahamic monotheistic faiths – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam They are religions of the book. Scripture is a powerful command, but like the United States Constitution adherents and aspirants find themselves impaled on the products of the founding fathers contradictions. In U.S. law it is between the Enlightenment values of the slave-holding signers of the Declaration of Independence and the protection and acquiescence in racism and chattel slavery embedded in the Constitution of 1787. Only Civil War could end it and even so the post civil war Second Founding was only a qualified success.Similarly Christianity – a dissenters religion founded on lionization of the victim of an unjust execution has (at least since becoming the religion of empire in 314 AD.) tolerated war and capital punishment. Only in the past few years has the Catechism of the Catholic Church abjured capital punishment.Evidenced by the practices and justifications claimed by ISIS and Boko Haram Bernard Freamon argues that although freeing slaves is lauded in the Quran the practice – particularly in war – is not definitively abjured. His objective is to spur Islamic scholars and lawyers to develop the foundation in Islamic law for complete abolition, – GWCToward the Abolition of Slavery under the Aegis of Islamic Law – The Comparative Jurist William & Mary Law School
by Bernard Freamon (author of Possessed by the Right Hand,The Problem of Slavery in Islamic Law and Muslim Cultures)